MEDICAL e-TEMPLATES

ABSTRACT

The present application relates to a method and system for providing medical personnel with medical treatment protocols for treating a disease or medical condition of interest. The method includes transmitting a medical treatment protocol template to a user upon receiving a request for a medical treatment protocol related to a particular medical condition. The medical treatment protocol template may include treatment parameters data and sample case data. The method and system also allow for the treatment parameters data from the medical treatment protocol template to be applied to patient data to create a patient-specific treatment plan to allow a clinician to apply the medical treatment protocol embodied by the template to a particular patient.

RELATED APPLICATION DATA

This application claims priority of U.S. Provisional Application No.61/312,871 filed on Mar. 11, 2010, which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Aspects of the present invention relate to a method and system forproviding medical personnel with medical treatment protocols fortreating a disease of interest. Aspects of the invention also relate tomethods of preparing medical treatment protocols for distribution tomedical personnel.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Medical personnel, including clinicians, hospitals, treatmentfacilities, practice groups, and the like, have varying levels ofexperience and knowledge regarding the treatment of a specific diseaseor medical conditions. A clinician, practice group, etc., often usestreatment protocols developed by other clinicians, clinics, orhospitals. Even personnel specializing in a particular area of medicinemay not be aware of, have experience with, and/or have access totreatment protocols that are known by other clinicians or institutionsand may be particularly effective for treating a medical condition ofinterest.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method and system for creating anddistributing medical treatment protocol templates, which containtreatment parameters for treating a disease or medical condition. In oneaspect of the invention, a method of providing a medical treatmentprotocol template, stored in electronic format to a user, includesreceiving, at a computer system, a request for a treatment protocoltemplate related to a medical condition of interest to a user;processing the request and identifying, from a database including aplurality of medical treatment protocol template files, at least onetreatment protocol template related to the request; and transmitting theat least one medical treatment protocol template to the user.

The medical treatment protocol template may include treatment parametersdata and optionally sample case data. The medical treatment protocoltemplate may also include data chosen from indication data, adisclaimer, contra indication data, background information, one or morereference citations, or a combination of two or more thereof.

The database may be resident on a computer or server local to a user.The database may be resident on a server remote from a user's computerfrom which the request is made.

Transmitting the at least one medical treatment protocol template mayinclude transmitting the at least one medical treatment protocoltemplate to a user via a network connection, such as over the Internet,or may include transmitting an electronic copy of the at least onetreatment protocol template to a user via e-mail.

The method may also include applying, such as known via a treatmentplanning application, the treatment parameters data of the at least onemedical treatment protocol template to relevant patient data to create apatient specific treatment plan.

The method may include providing an online forum mode via the computersystem for a user to interact with one or more clinicians regarding theat least one identified medical treatment protocol template.

A request from a user may include receiving a user response to one ormore medical related questions; receiving one or more keywords as input;receiving a response to a user's selection of a medical condition from alist, or a combination of two or more thereof.

In another aspect of the invention, there is provided a system forproviding a medical treatment protocol including a memory; a pluralityof treatment protocol template files stored in the memory; and aprocessor that executes logic to receive a request for a medicaltreatment protocol template related to a medical condition, andidentifies at least one treatment protocol template file related to therequest, wherein a medical treatment protocol template file includestreatment protocol parameters data and sample case data.

The system may include a treatment planning application includingpatient files having patient data associated therewith for a respectivepatient, and the processor may execute logic to apply a relevant portionof the treatment parameters data associated with the at least oneidentified treatment protocol template to the appropriate patient data.

The processor may execute logic to transmit a copy of the at least oneidentified treatment protocol template to a user system requesting atreatment protocol template.

The system and method for distributing medical treatment protocoltemplates provides easy access to treatment protocols. The treatmentprotocol templates provide treatment protocol information in a readilyaccessible and usable form, which is often not available to cliniciansand especially is often not readily available at the treatment planningsystem. The system and method allow a clinician to find a suitabletreatment protocol without having to scour medical journals orpublications (even online versions of such publications) and withouthaving to read through an entire publication to find pertinent treatmentprotocol information, such as the actual treatment parameters, which maytake a substantial amount of time.

Additionally, the treatment protocol templates provide, in one aspect ofthe invention, both treatment parameters data and sample case data.Sample case data may be beneficial to a clinician before applying atreatment protocol to their own patients. But such information isfrequently not available in a publication's or journal's reporting of atreatment protocol.

Further, the method and system allow for the automatic transfer of thetreatment parameters data, which relate to the treatment protocolitself, to patient data contained in, for example, a treatment planningapplication, to create a treatment plan specific to a patient that is tobe treated using the treatment protocol. This may reduce the possibilityof errors in manually entering the treatment parameters into a treatmentplanning system or manually entering the patient data in the appropriatetreatment parameters field and may reduce the time to provide apatient-specific treatment plan.

In another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for amedical treatment protocol system owner to create a medical treatmentprotocol template database including acquiring information regardingtreatment of particular medical conditions including treatmentparameters data and optionally sample case data related to the medicaltreatment protocol; converting the information into respective treatmentprotocol templates including the treatment parameters data, andoptionally the sample case data associated with the treatment protocol;and saving the medical treatment protocol template as part of adatabase.

Acquiring information regarding treatment of a medical condition mayinclude receiving a submission of data in electronic form from aclinician of the medical treatment protocol system owner. The submissionof data from the clinician may be received in an e-mail format from auser or from the clinician uploading the data to the medical treatmentprotocol system.

In still another aspect of the invention, a method of treating a diseaseincludes submitting a request for a medical treatment protocol relatedto a medical condition of interest to a medical treatment protocolsystem having a database including a plurality of medical treatmentprotocol templates; receiving an electronic version of at least onemedical treatment protocol template from the treatment protocol system,the medical treatment protocol template including treatment parametersdata and optionally sample case data; and treating a medical subject byperforming treatment parameters defined in the at least one treatmentprotocol template on a medical subject.

The method of treating a patient may include applying relevant treatmentparameters data of a medical treatment protocol template file to patientdata to create a patient-specific treatment plan. A treatment planningapplication may be configured to interact with a treatment protocoltemplate and apply at least a portion of the treatment parameters datato a patient treatment plan file including medical data related to apatient to create a patient-specific treatment plan.

These and other features of the present invention will become apparentfrom the following detailed description in conjunction with thedrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the annexed drawings:

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an exemplary web-basedinfrastructure on which aspects of the invention may be carried out;

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a computer or server as anexemplary machine on which aspects of the invention may be carried out;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method of providing amedical treatment protocol template in accordance with aspects of thedisclosed technology;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a method of creating an exemplarypatient-specific treatment plan from a medical treatment protocoltemplate; and

FIGS. 5-10 illustrate an example of display outputs depicting exemplaryaspects of a medical treatment protocol template in accordance withaspects of the disclosed technology.

FIGS. 11-16 illustrate an example of display outputs depicting exemplaryaspects of medical treatment protocol template in accordance withaspects of the disclosed technology, wherein the display outputs pertainto a template different from that shown in FIGS. 5-10.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the disclosed technology relate to a method and system forproviding medical treatment protocols to clinicians for treating amedical condition. The medical treatment protocol may be in the form ofa medical treatment protocol template that may provide a user withmedical treatment protocol data and optionally sample case data usefulto a user, such as a clinician, to suitably treat a patient. It will beappreciated that a medical treatment protocol application may beimplemented as part of a software program resident on and/or readable bya computing device such as, for example, a personal computer (see, forexample, FIG. 2). Alternatively, the medical treatment protocolapplication may be implemented as part of a web-accessible applicationthat may be accessed by a user via the Internet (see, for example, FIG.1).

The present invention is described herein in terms of several exemplaryembodiments that should be taken to be illustrative of the invention andnot limiting thereof.

Referring to FIG. 1, a medical treatment protocol application isillustrated in a general network or Internet environment 100 in which amedical treatment protocol system 110 includes an application server120, a medical treatment protocol application 125, a memory 130 forstoring data accessible or otherwise usable by the application server120, and a database 140 which includes a plurality of medical treatmentprotocol templates. The medical treatment protocol templates may be inthe form of electronic files, which may include textual, graphical, oraudio content or a combination of two or more thereof. A user, such as aclinician, may access (using, for example, a machine 150) the medicaltreatment protocol template database 140 via the Internet to request andreceive one or more medical treatment protocol templates. While shown asa separate element in FIG. 1, it will be appreciated that the database140 may be incorporated as part of the memory 130.

Alternatively, the medical treatment protocol application and templatesmay be resident on a local computer or server. FIG. 2 illustrates aschematic block diagram of the server 200. The server 200 (also known asa data storage and web page hosting device) generally includes aprocessor 210, a memory 220, a local interface 230, a data storagemedium 240, video and input/output interfaces 250, and variouscommunication interfaces 260. The server may include optionally adisplay 270, a keyboard 280, and a user input device 290 (e.g., acomputer mouse, a barcode scanner, a light pen, etc.). The server may bea personal computer or other suitable server capable of supporting aweb-based application. The server is generally capable of executing oneor more computer application(s) 222 in accordance with aspects of thepresent invention. The medical treatment protocol application 215 mayinclude a database of medical treatment protocol templates. It will beappreciated that the medical treatment protocol database may be separatefrom, e.g., stored in the memory 220, but accessible by the medicaltreatment protocol application 215. In addition, the medical treatmentprotocol application may also include software (or computer-readablecode) that permits information to be transmitted to and updated byvarious local and remote devices. The medical treatment protocolapplication may be logically associated with or call one or moreadditional computer applications 222 or one or more sub-computerapplications 224, which generally include compilations of executablecode.

In one embodiment, the medical treatment protocol application 215, thecomputer applications 222, the sub-applications 224, and/or treatmentplanning application 225 are embodied as one or more computer programs(e.g., one or more software applications including compilations ofexecutable code). The computer program(s) can be stored on a datastorage medium or other computer readable medium, such as a magnetic oroptical storage device (e.g., hard disk, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, memory stick,etc.).

To execute the computer application and associated database andsub-applications, the server or computer can include one or moreprocessors 210 used to execute instructions that carry out a specifiedlogic routine(s). In one embodiment, the server is based on aclient-server architecture and may serve multiple clients. However, oneof ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that anycombination of computers having the functionality described herein shallbe deemed to be within the scope of the present invention.

The server (e.g., 110 or 200) may have a memory for storing data,software, logic routine instructions, computer programs, files,operating system instructions, and the like. The memory can compriseseveral devices and includes, for example, volatile and non-volatilememory components. Accordingly, the memory can include, for example,random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), hard disks, floppydisks, compact disks (e.g., CD ROM, DVD ROM, CD RW, etc.), tapes, and/orother memory components, plus associated drives and players for thesememory types. The processor 210, memory 220, and the data storage medium240 are coupled using a local interface 230. The local interface 230 canbe, for example, a data bus with accompanying control bus, a network, orother subsystem.

The server can have various video and input/output interfaces 250 aswell as one or more communications interfaces 260. The interfaces can beused to couple the server to various peripherals, such as a display(e.g., a CRT display, a LCD display, a plasma display, etc.), akeyboard, and a user input device. The communications interfaces 260 caninclude, for example, a modem, a network interface card, and/or awireless network interface card. The communications interfaces 260 canenable the server to transmit and receive data signals, voice signals,video signals, and the like via an external network, such as theInternet, a wide area network (WAN), a local area network (LAN), directdata link, or similar wired (e.g., Ethernet) or wireless system (e.g.,802.11b or 802.11g). One of ordinary skill in the art will readilyappreciate that a wireless communication medium and a wiredcommunication medium may be used interchangeably to accomplish thefunctionality described herein and any such arrangement shall be deemedto be within the scope of the present invention.

In one embodiment, access to the medical treatment protocol applicationand/or database may be fee-based (e.g., monthly, quarterly, or yearlysubscription) or non-fee based.

In one aspect, a medical treatment protocol template includes treatmentparameters data and optionally sample case data related to a medicaltreatment protocol, and which is contained in a defined electronicformat and structure. The format and structure, however, are notparticularly limited and may be chosen as desired for an intended use ordesired design.

Treatment parameters data may include parameters and conditions to beused during treatment of a particular medical condition. Each treatmentparameter of a treatment protocol may be presented as a data field in atreatment protocol template. Examples of treatment parameters mayinclude, but are not limited to, type of medication(s) to be used intreatment, dosage level(s) of medication to be used, number oftreatments recommended, frequency of treatments, recommended timeinterval between treatments, treatment modality, criteria for patientselection for treatment (e.g., age, disease stage, tumor size, etc.),and the like.

It will be appreciated that other parameters may be included as desireddepending on the specific medical condition and the treatment protocol.For example, in the field of radiation therapy and radiation, atreatment protocol may include parameters such as:

-   -   Dose to be given to the tumor    -   Maximum allowed dose for radiation-sensitive structures (i.e.,        organs at risk (OAR))    -   Number of treatment fractions    -   Beam arrangement    -   Treatment modality (e.g., intensity modulated radiation therapy        (IMRT), Conformal Dynamic Arc, etc.)    -   Criteria for patient selection (e.g., age, disease stage, tumor        size, etc.)

Sample case data may include data representing results from at least oneexample of the treatment protocol as applied to a medical subject. Suchdata may be presented and displayed in text form, table form, graphicalform, audio, video or a combination of two or more thereof. Such datamay be particularly beneficial to clinicians before applying a treatmentprotocol to a clinician's own patients. For example, such data may helpclinicians who may not have experience with the protocol betterunderstand the treatments, which will be beneficial in applying theprotocol to their own patients.

Additionally, the medical treatment protocol template may include otherdata fields as desired. Such data may include, for example, dataproviding explanations related to the protocol and/or sample case data,different indications, contra indications, background information,citations to literature references discussing the treatment protocol,and the like. Such data may be presented and displayed in any suitableformat including text or graphical representations. The treatmentprotocol template may also include a disclaimer field indicating, forexample, that the protocol represented in the template may not besuitable for all patients or the particular patient for which theprotocol was sought, and that it is the physician's or clinician'sresponsibility to ensure that the protocol is indeed suitable for theintended patient.

The medical treatment protocol application contains programming andlogic to perform various functionalities suitable for use with aspectsof the disclosed technology. The medical treatment protocol applicationmay be configured to process a request for at least one medicaltreatment protocol template related to a medical condition or disease ofinterest to a user, identify at least one medical treatment protocoltemplate from a database including a plurality of medical treatmentprotocol templates, and transmit the at least one identified template toa requesting device.

While in the context of the present example a request pertains to theparticular medical condition of interest, the medical treatment protocolapplication can be configured to provide medical treatment protocoltemplates based on other criteria. For example, the medical treatmentprotocol application can be configured to provide a flat list of allavailable medical treatment protocol templates stored in the database(e.g., an unrestricted request). Similarly, the medical treatmentprotocol application can be configured to provide medical treatmentprotocol templates corresponding to a creator of the template, e.g., aparticular clinician, a particular hospital, a particular university,etc. Such features can be advantageous, as different clinicians,hospitals, etc. may have different treatment philosophies that mayresult in different treatment parameters. By providing such searchoptions, the clinician can be provided with different perspectives onhow to treat a particular medical condition or disease.

In carrying out the various functions, the medical treatment protocolapplication may be configured to recognize various forms of input as arequest for a medical treatment protocol template. For example, themedical treatment protocol application may be configured to recognizekeywords or phrases received as input. The medical treatment protocolapplication may also be configured to provide a pre-programmed list ofmedical conditions and receive as input a user's selection of one ormore of the listed medical conditions. As another example, the medicaltreatment protocol application may be programmed to provide a series ofquestions to be answered by a user to elicit information about a medicalcondition of interest. In providing questions to a user, the medicaltreatment protocol application may be configured to receiveuser-generated input (e.g., keywords or phrases) as a response to aquestion and/or may include pre-programmed choices (e.g., “yes” or “no”answers or pre-programmed phrases) from which the user may select inresponse to a question. Such questions could ask, for example, what theparticular disease or condition is, what stage the disease is in, whatis the patient's age, whether the patient is male or female, where atumor is located, what size the tumor is, etc.

Referring to FIG. 3, a general method 300 for distributing a medicaltreatment protocol template is illustrated. At functional block 310, themethod includes receiving, at a computer system, a request for a medicaltreatment protocol template related to a particular medical condition ordisease. As described above, the method may be carried out in aweb-based system. In such a system, as illustrated in FIG. 1, a user mayoperate the machine 150 to connect the system 110 and access the medicaltreatment protocol application 125 and request a treatment protocoltemplate. Alternatively, referring to FIG. 2, a user's computer orserver 200 may contain the database, and the request may be executedlocally. Receiving a request may occur by, for example, the system 110in FIG. 1 receiving an electronic request from a user machine 150. Asanother example, when the medical treatment protocol application isresident on a computer local to a user, such as, for example, server 200in FIG. 2, the medical treatment application may receive the request byuser input into the computer. As described above, the request may be inany suitable form including in the form of keyword input, user input inselecting a disease or condition of interest from a list or menu, oruser input in responding to questions presented by the medical treatmentprotocol application, and the like.

At functional block 320, the medical treatment protocol applicationprocesses the request and identifies at least one treatment protocoltemplate (e.g., a template stored on a database accessible by thetreatment protocol application) related to the request. The number oftreatment protocol templates identified may depend on the specificity ofthe request, the number of treatment protocol templates stored in thedatabase, or a combination of such factors. It will be appreciated thatthe medical treatment protocol application may be programmed in anydesirable manner to determine whether a treatment protocol template isidentified as being responsive to the request.

At functional block 330, the medical treatment protocol applicationtransmits the at least one identified medical treatment protocoltemplate to the user. This step may include transmitting the medicaltreatment protocol template in a suitable electronic form for display bythe end user. If more than one treatment protocol template is availableand identified as a suitable match to a request, the medical treatmentprotocol application may transmit each identified treatment protocoltemplate to the user and the output for display might be presented as alist from which the user may select one or more treatment protocoltemplates for review. If only one treatment protocol template is found,the output for display may be presented as a link, or the medicaltreatment protocol application may be programmed to automaticallydisplay the full version of the identified treatment protocol templateupon being transmitted to the user. Further, the one or more medicaltreatment protocol templates may be transmitted as a complete template(i.e., a medical treatment protocol template containing all informationassociated therewith) or as a partial template (e.g., the medicaltreatment protocol template includes only information identifying ageneral description of the proposed treatment, only the treatmentparameters, etc.). Transmitting and/or displaying only a generaldescription of the proposed treatment is useful, for example, when aplurality of different medical treatment protocol templates areidentified during a search, as it enables the clinician to quicklyreview the respective medical treatment protocol templates and excludethose that are not within the clinician's needs. Transmitting only thetreatment parameters may be useful, for example, when the clinicianalready knows which medical treatment protocol template he intends touse, and only requires the specifics of the treatment.

Upon receiving the one or more treatment protocol templates, theclinician requesting the templates reviews the templates to determine ifthe treatment protocol defined in the template is suitable or acceptablefor treating a respective patient. The clinician selects a particulartemplate to use in treatment of a patient. If the clinician determinesthat the identified template(s) is/are not suitable for their use, theymay choose to carry out another request.

In accordance with one embodiment, a patient-specific treatment plan maybe created using the treatment protocol template(s) obtained from therequest. Referring back to FIGS. 1 and 2, a user's computer (e.g., 150or 200) may include a treatment planning application, e.g., treatmentplanning application 160 in FIG. 1 or treatment planning application 225in FIG. 2. The treatment planning application may include patienttreatment plan files containing patient data related to a respectivepatient. The patient data may include any desirable data including datasuch as the patient's height, weight, or age, the disease or conditionto be treated, medical specific parameters such as disease stage, tumorsize, or any other suitable parameter. The treatment planningapplication may be compatible with the medical treatment protocolapplication and/or medical treatment protocol templates to read,extract, and/or receive relevant data, e.g., treatment parameters data,contained in the medical treatment protocol templates that may beapplied to the patient data in the patient treatment plan files.

In one embodiment, a user may be able to access potential treatmentprotocol templates through the treatment planning application. Forexample, a display associated with the treatment planning application,and in particular a patient treatment plan file, may include an icon orbutton that, when selected by a user such as by clicking on the icon,causes the treatment planning application to access a treatment protocoldatabase to request one or more medical treatment protocol templates.Upon a clinician selecting a template as being suitable for treating apatient, the treatment parameters data may be automatically insertedinto the treatment plan file that is being created or updated by thetreatment planning application.

In the above embodiments, the request for the template may occur in anysuitable manner as previously described herein. Additionally, dependingon information contained in various parameters or fields of the patienttreatment plan file, the medical treatment protocol application may pullup a subset of the database containing selected treatment protocoltemplates. For example, if the patient treatment plan file includes thename of a specific disease, e.g., prostate carcinoma, in adisease/condition field, the treatment protocol application may beconfigured to recognize such a field, or receive such information fromthe treatment plan file upon the user requesting access to the treatmentprotocol application database, and select templates related to thetreatment of the specific condition.

Referring to FIG. 4, a method 400 for transferring treatment data to apatient treatment plan is shown. At functional block 410, the usersystem (150 or 200) may receive a medical treatment protocol templatefrom a medical treatment protocol system or application (if resident ona user's computer). At functional block 420, treatment parameters dataare transferred to the treatment planning application. The treatmentplanning application may be configured to extract and/or receivetreatment parameters data from a medical treatment protocol template andapply the parameters to patient data in a patient treatment plan file.Further, the treatment planning application may be configured to allowthe clinician to modify the treatment plan, including treatmentparameters. At functional block 430, the treatment planning applicationapplies the treatment parameters data to a relevant patient data fieldin the treatment planning application and/or patient treatment plan fileto create a patient-specific treatment plan employing an identifiedmedical treatment protocol.

By creating a patient-specific treatment plan from data associated witha treatment protocol template, the need for a user to manually enterinformation may be significantly reduced or eliminated. Automaticallycreating a patient-specific treatment plan may provide a time-savingbenefit in that the treatment parameters need not be manually entered bya clinician, and may reduce or avoid the chance that incorrectinformation is entered in creating a treatment plan for a patient.

In providing treatment protocol templates, the treatment protocol systemowner may also provide a manner in which a user may further communicatewith the treatment protocol system owner to effectively implement theidentified protocol in the treatment of a patient. For example, thetreatment protocol system owner may provide various forums by which auser/customer can discuss various aspects of a treatment protocol withexperienced clinicians and/or to provide suggested updates to thetreatment protocols. The forum is not particularly limited and mayinclude, for example, an online forum such as through an online chat orinstant messaging system, live online web conferences including onlinevideo conferences, telephone conferences, and the like.

Another means by which the user may be supported in effectivelyimplementing the identified medical treatment protocol template includesa case review. A case review may be thought of as a “second opinion”,wherein one or more other clinicians provide their opinion of thetreatment plan that the user created using the template.

As an additional service to the users of medical treatment protocoltemplates, fine tuning of the treatment plans created using thetemplates could be offered. Fine-tuning can go beyond the above “secondopinion” in that the one or more other clinicians would not only provideadvice, but would modify the created treatment plan as they deemappropriate.

In cases where a clinician or customer submits revisions or newtreatment protocol templates to the system owner, a review process canbe instituted wherein experts review the revisions or new templates.Once approved, the new or revised medical treatment protocol templatescan be published and stored in the database. This may be particularlyuseful for medical treatment protocol templates submitted byclinicians/customers via email or online forums, as it provides a meansto confirm that the submitted templates are in line with acceptedmedical practices. Further, if the medical treatment protocol templateis published, the system owner may pay the creator of the medicaltreatment protocol template (e.g., a payment based on a fixed orsliding-scale), thereby providing an incentive to submit new medicaltreatment protocol templates.

FIGS. 5-10 illustrate an example of a display output 500 of a medicaltreatment protocol template in the form of a graphical representationsuitable for display on a human-readable display. FIGS. 5-10 furtherillustrate how medical treatment protocol templates could be displayedwithin a treatment planning application (to which the navigation field560 may belong; see below). As illustrated in FIGS. 5-10, the templatemay include a template name field 502, a treatment field 504, and anindication field 506. As illustrated in FIGS. 5-10, the indication field506 indicates that the treatment protocol is related to the treatment ofprostate carcinoma, and the treatment field 504 indicates that theprotocol calls for a treatment modality of IMRT with 72 Gy in 40fractions.

As shown in FIGS. 5-10, the display output includes a graphical section510 containing various tabs with additional data fields. In FIG. 5, thedisplay graphic associated with the indication icon 512 is shown tocontain additional information related to the treatment such as thestage of prostate carcinoma for which the protocol is intended, how thetreatment works, areas to be treated, and the like. FIG. 6 illustratesdisplay output associated with a contra-indication icon 514, whichprovides information on disease and/or patient conditions that may makethe particular protocol unsuitable for the user in a particularsituation. FIG. 7 illustrates display output associated with abackground icon 516. The display output shown in FIG. 7 is shown asincluding text output 515 providing information about the treatment andmay also include video output (not shown) as a supplement to the textoutput 515.

FIG. 8 illustrates data output associated with a parameter icon 518. Asshown in FIG. 8, the data output illustrates the specific treatmentparameters that may be used to treat the patient's medical condition ordisease (Prostate Carcinoma in the present example). In the exemplarydata output, the parameters include the medical images to be used orobtained, the photon energy setting of a particular piece of medicalequipment, the application technique, the number of fractions, dose,etc. The data output may also include general guidelines on using themedical equipment, information regarding the target regions in or on thepatient, critical organs, etc. As will be appreciated, the data outputof the parameters screen in FIG. 8 can include any information that isrelevant to treatment of the medical condition or disease.

FIG. 9 illustrates data output associated with a sample case icon 520.In FIG. 9, the output is shown as a series of graphics 522, 526, or 528(graphics 526 and 528 being more clearly visible if a user were toscroll down the display screen with scroll bar 530). Graphic 522illustrates the arrangement of the IMRT beams used in a particularapplication. Graphic 524 illustrates a hotspot or area to avoid with thebeams during treatment of this disease using the identified protocol.

FIG. 10 illustrates a display of literature or reference data associatedwith the literature icon 522, which may include citations to variousliterature references or clinical studies discussing or applying thetreatment protocol. It will be appreciated that the template may beconfigured to provide a link to the cited reference(s) that may beaccessed via the Internet or a link to an electronic copy of thereference stored as part of the treatment protocol template.

In FIGS. 5-10, the output display of the medical treatment protocoltemplate is also shown as including display fields 540, 550, and 560.Display fields 540 and 550 are illustrated as icons, which a user mayclick on or select to accept the template (field/icon 550), if they findthe protocol acceptable for their needs, or they may click on cancel(field/icon 540) if the template is not suitable for their needs.

The display field 560 may be the navigation field of the treatmentplanning application. As previously described, the treatment parameterscontained in the treatment protocol template may be transferred orimported to a patient treatment plan file to create a patient-specifictreatment plan. In FIGS. 5-10, field 560 is shown as having no patientdata, but provides field 562 to load a patient treatment plan file suchas from a file stored on the treatment planning application. In oneembodiment, by clicking the accept icon 550, the treatment parametersdata may be automatically transferred to a patient treatment plan fileloaded into the system.

The “Go to” and “Next” icons (564 and 565, respectively) of thetreatment planning application may allow the user to jump to any (564)or just the next (565) step of the treatment planning workflow. Suchsteps may for example be the import of medical images, the outlining ofanatomical objects (such as the tumor) in these images, or the selectionand acceptance of an appropriate treatment protocol template (asdescribed in the previous paragraph).

FIGS. 11-16 illustrate another exemplary display output 500 of a medicaltreatment protocol template. The format of FIGS. 11-16 is generally thesame as that of FIGS. 5-10 and, therefore, will not be repeated. FIGS.11-16 are provided to illustrate how the display output may appear for adifferent medical condition or disease (Lung Cancer in FIGS. 11-16).

A medical treatment protocol template may be created in any suitablemanner. In one method, a medical treatment protocol system owneracquires information regarding treatment of particular medicalconditions including treatment parameters data and optionally samplecase data related to a medical treatment protocol, converts theinformation into the respective treatment protocol template, and savesthe template as part of a database. Converting the acquired informationinto a template may include creating an electronic file having a definedformat and structure to represent the information and provide it in asuitable format for a user. The template may be created to be compatiblewith other software, e.g., treatment planning software.

Generally, the medical treatment protocol data will be created by anindividual or group of experienced clinicians. Such individual or groupmay be an existing customer of the medical treatment protocol systemowner, engaged by the medical treatment protocol system owner to collectand/or create treatment protocol data, and/or a member of a group ownedand/or operated by the medical treatment protocol system owner forproviding medical treatment protocols. The individual or group ofexperienced clinicians may also include an institution such as aresearch center, hospital, or clinic that is an expert for the treatmentof a specific disease. The group of experienced clinicians may alsoinclude an organization that plays a role in a certain medical fieldsuch as, for example, Novalis Circle, Radiation Therapy Oncology Group(RTOG), the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM),American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO), and thelike.

The individual or group of clinicians may be engaged by the medicaltreatment protocol system owner to collect and/or develop data requiredfor the medical treatment protocol templates. Alternatively, theindividual or group of clinicians may pay a membership fee to themedical treatment protocol system owner for providing the service ofcentralizing, organizing, and providing the database of treatmentprotocols.

In acquiring the information related to treating the medical condition,the clinician or clinicians obtain information about a treatmentprotocol from one or more sources (e.g., publications, journals, etc.)The clinician(s) may filter or extract the relevant treatment protocolinformation from the source and submit it to the medical treatmentprotocol system owner.

In one example, a medical treatment protocol template and database maybe created by receiving an electronic submission from, for example, aclinician or customer of the treatment protocol system owner. Thesubmission may be provided in any suitable form. The submitter maysubmit the necessary data and information via e-mail or other suitableelectronic form (e.g., PDF, word document, etc.). Alternatively, thetreatment protocol system owner may provide an electronic form (e.g.,via the treatment protocol system owner's website or software present ona computer local to the user) with various fields to be filled in by thesubmitter, and the electronic form may be submitted to the treatmentprotocol system owner.

The treatment protocol system owner may then have the submittedtreatment protocol reviewed by a group of clinicians, e.g., a group thatis a member of the treatment protocol system owner's organization or bya group that is engaged by the treatment protocol system owner to reviewsuch submissions. The clinician or group of clinicians reviewing thesubmitted treatment protocol data may approve of the submitted treatmentprotocol. If the treatment protocol submitted by the clinician orcustomer is approved, the treatment protocol system owner may use theapproved protocol and data to create a treatment protocol template andadd the template to its database. The treatment protocol system ownermay require the party submitting the proposed protocol to agree to allowthe treatment protocol system owner to modify the proposed protocol andto add any approved protocol and subsequently created template embodyingthe approved protocol to the treatment protocol system owner's database.As part of this model, the treatment protocol system owner may agree tocompensate an individual or group whose submitted protocol and data isapproved and incorporated into or created into a treatment protocoltemplate.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, there is provided amethod of doing business in connection with the medical treatmentprotocol templates described herein. More specifically, a serviceprovider may provide to one or more subscribers (e.g., hospitals,clinicians, etc.) access to application software and/or a databasecontaining a plurality of medical treatment protocol templates asdescribed herein. In exchange for the application software and/or accessto the database, the subscriber pays to the service provider an agreedsubscription fee. The subscription fee, for example, may be time-based,e.g., hourly, monthly, yearly, etc., or it may be use-based, e.g., afixed fee each time the subscriber requests a medical treatment protocoltemplate.

In providing access to the medical treatment protocol templates, theservice provider may assemble, maintain, and update a databasecontaining the medical treatment protocol templates. For example, theservice provider may employ a staff of clinicians having expertise invarious medical disciplines. The staff may modify, remove and/or developmedical treatment protocol templates as described herein, wherein thetemplates are stored in electronic format, e.g., on one or more computerservers operated by the service provider or provided to subscribers foruse on the subscriber's computers via software update.

In addition to the above, clinicians and/or subscribers may submit newor revised medical treatment protocol templates to the service provider.In exchange for providing such medical treatment protocol templates, theclinician and/or subscriber may be provided with credits that can beused to pay for the subscription service.

To enable a subscriber to retrieve the medical treatment protocoltemplates, a user interface as described herein can be provided toeasily search the database for medical treatment protocol templates. Theuser interface can include various search and sorting features as isconventional so as to enable efficient searching of the database. Whenthe subscriber has found one or more medical treatment protocoltemplates that meets his/her needs, the one or more medical treatmentprotocol templates may be provided to the subscriber in any one of anumber of different formats (e.g., emails, file download, physicalmedia, etc.). In one embodiment, the medical treatment protocoltemplates are provided to the subscriber in encrypted form.

For systems configured with the medical treatment protocol templatesand/or corresponding application software stored on the serviceprovider's server, the user interface can include verification means toverify whether or not the subscriber has a valid subscription. This canbe accomplished using conventional techniques, such requesting thesubscriber to enter a characteristic identifier (e.g., enter a usernameand password via a web-based interface). Based on the characteristicidentifier, the system can determine if the subscription is valid. Ifvalid, then the subscriber is granted access to the system, and ifinvalid, then access is denied.

For systems configured with the medical treatment protocol database andcorresponding application software stored on the subscriber's computer,the system may be configured to grant access for a specified time periodcorresponding to the subscription period. For example, if the subscriberpurchased a one-month subscription, then the system will grant access(e.g., allow the application to run and/or grant access to the database)for a period of one-month beginning from the time the subscription waspurchased. Once the time period has lapsed, then access to theapplication software and/or database may be denied until a newsubscription is purchased.

As described herein, the application software and database need notreside on the same computer or server. It is possible, for example, forthe application software to reside on the subscriber's computer, and thedatabase to reside on the service provider's servers. It is alsopossible that the database resides on a third party's server (i.e., aparty other than the service provider).

In another aspect, the disclosed technology provides a method and systemfor treating a medical condition. The method includes submitting arequest for a medical treatment protocol related to treating a medicalcondition of interest to a medical treatment protocol system having adatabase including a plurality of medical treatment protocol templates.The party requesting the protocol then receives an electronic version ofat least one medical treatment protocol template from the medicaltreatment protocol system relating to the medical condition of interest.As described above, this may be carried out as part of a web-basedsystem or on a system local to the user. A medical subject may then betreated by performing treatment parameters defined in the at least onereceived treatment protocol template.

Upon receiving the medical treatment protocol template, a clinician maycreate a treatment plan for a medical subject by modifying and/orapplying the treatment parameters data from the medical treatmentprotocol template to patient data of the medical subject. In oneembodiment, as previously described herein, the clinician who will betreating the patient may have a treatment planning applicationcontaining the patient treatment plan file stored on a local computerand the treatment planning application may be configured to communicatewith the medical treatment protocol template to automatically receive orextract the treatment parameters data from the medical treatmentprotocol template, apply the treatment parameters data to theappropriate patient data field in the patient treatment plan file, andcreate a patient-specific treatment plan with the treatment planningapplication. The data contained in the patient-specific treatment planmay be transferred to or read by a suitable program on a computerconnected to a suitable piece of medical equipment for treating apatient. Further, prior to or after transfer, the treatment parametersand/or treatment plan may be manually modified by a medical professionalas desired.

A person having ordinary skill in the art of computer programming, andspecifically in interactive software programming should consider itobvious in view of the provided description how to program a device tooperate and carry out the functions of the medical treatment protocolapplication, medical treatment protocol template, and/or treatmentplanning application described herein. Also, while the functionality ofthese applications may be carried out via a controller and/or a webaccess interface (alone or in conjunction with other applicationprograms) in accordance with inventive aspects, such functionality alsocould be carried out via dedicated hardware, firmware, software, orcombinations thereof without departing from the scope of the presentinvention.

Although the invention has been shown and described with respect to oneor more particular preferred embodiments, it is clear that equivalentamendments or modifications may occur to the person skilled in the artwhen reading and interpreting the text and enclosed drawings of thisspecification. In particular with regard to the various functionsperformed by the elements (components, assemblies, devices,compositions, etc.) described above, the terms used to describe suchelements (including any reference to a “means”) are intended, unlessexpressly indicated otherwise, to correspond to any element whichperforms the specified function of the element described, i.e. which isfunctionally equivalent to it, even if it is not structurally equivalentto the disclosed structure which performs the function in the exampleembodiment or embodiments illustrated here. Moreover, while a particularfeature of the invention may have been described above with respect toonly one or some of the embodiments illustrated, such a feature may alsobe combined with one or more other features of the other embodiments, inany way such as may be desirable or advantageous for any givenapplication of the invention.

1. A method of providing a medical treatment protocol template stored inelectronic format to a user, the method comprising: receiving, at acomputer system, a request for a treatment protocol template related toa medical condition of interest to a user; processing the request andidentifying, from a database comprising a plurality of medical treatmentprotocol template files, at least one treatment protocol templaterelated to the request; and transmitting the at least one medicaltreatment protocol template to the user.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the medical treatment protocol template comprises treatmentparameters data and optionally sample case data.
 3. The method of claim2, wherein the medical treatment protocol template comprises data chosenfrom indication data, a disclaimer, contra indication data, backgroundinformation, one or more reference citations, or a combination of two ormore thereof.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the database comprisingthe plurality of medical treatment protocol template files is residenton a user's computer.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the databasecomprising the plurality of medical treatment protocol template files isresident on a computer system remote from a user's computer.
 6. Themethod of claim 5, wherein transmitting the at least one medicaltreatment protocol template includes transmitting the at least onemedical treatment protocol template to a user via a network connection.7. The method of claim 5, wherein transmitting the at least one medicaltreatment protocol template includes transmitting an electronic copy ofthe at least one treatment protocol template to a user via e-mail. 8.The method of claim 1, wherein a treatment planning application appliesthe treatment parameters data of the medical treatment protocol templateto relevant patient data related to a particular patient to create apatient specific treatment plan.
 9. The method of claim 8, furthercomprising manually modifying the treatment parameters data.
 10. Themethod of claim 8, wherein the request for a treatment protocol templateis made via the treatment planning application.
 11. The method of claim1, further comprising providing an online forum mode via the computersystem for a user to interact with one or more clinicians regarding theat least one identified medical treatment protocol template.
 12. Themethod of claim 1, wherein receiving a request from a user comprisesreceiving a user response to one or more medical related questions;receiving one or more keywords as input; receiving a response to auser's selection of a medical condition from a list, or a combination oftwo or more thereof.
 13. The method of claim 1, further comprisingreceiving new or revised medical treatment protocol templates from aclinician or customer, and reviewing the new or revised medicaltreatment protocol templates prior to transmission to a user.
 14. Asystem for providing a medical treatment protocol template comprising: amemory; a plurality of treatment protocol template files stored in thememory; and a processor that executes logic to: receive a request for amedical treatment protocol template related to a medical condition, andidentify at least one treatment protocol template file related to therequest, wherein a medical treatment protocol template file comprisestreatment parameters data and optionally sample case data.
 15. Thesystem of claim 14 comprising a treatment planning applicationcomprising patient files having patient data associated therewith for arespective patient, wherein the processor executes logic to apply arelevant portion of the treatment parameters data associated with the atleast one identified treatment protocol template to the appropriatepatient data of a patient file.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein theprocessor executes logic to modify the treatment parameters data basedon user input data.
 17. The system of claim 14, wherein the processorexecutes logic to transmit a copy of the at least one identifiedtreatment protocol template to a user system requesting a treatmentprotocol template.
 18. The system of claim 14 further comprising acommunications interface for conducting a communication session with auser via a network connection.
 19. A method for a medical treatmentprotocol system owner to create a medical treatment protocol templatedatabase comprising: acquiring information regarding treatment ofparticular medical conditions including treatment parameters data andoptionally sample case data related to the medical treatment protocol;converting the information into respective treatment protocol templatescomprising the treatment parameters data, and optionally the sample casedata associated with the treatment protocol; and saving the medicaltreatment protocol template as part of a database.
 20. The method ofclaim 19, wherein acquiring information regarding treatment of a medicalcondition includes receiving a submission of data in electronic formfrom a clinician or customer of the medical treatment protocol systemowner.
 21. The method of claim 20, wherein the submission of data fromthe clinician or customer is received in an e-mail format from a user.22. The method of claim 20, wherein the submission of data is receivedfrom a clinician or customer uploading the data to the medical treatmentprotocol system.
 23. A method of treating a disease comprising:submitting a request for a medical treatment protocol related to amedical condition of interest to a medical treatment protocol systemhaving a database including a plurality of medical treatment protocoltemplates; receiving an electronic version of at least one medicaltreatment protocol template from the treatment protocol system, themedical treatment protocol template comprising treatment parameters dataand optionally sample case data; and treating a medical subject byperforming treatment parameters defined in the at least one treatmentprotocol template on a medical subject.
 24. The method of claim 23,comprising applying relevant treatment parameters data of a medicaltreatment protocol template file to patient data contained in atreatment planning application to create a patient-specific treatmentplan.
 25. The method of claim 24, comprising manually modifying thetreatment parameters data.
 26. The method of claim 23, wherein at leasta portion of the treatment parameters data from a received medicaltreatment protocol template is automatically transferred to a treatmentplanning application comprising medical data related to a medicalsubject, and the treatment planning application applies at least aportion of the treatment parameters data to the relevant medical datafield to create a treatment plan specific to a medical subject.
 27. Themethod according to claim 24, further comprising manually modifying thetreatment plan.